A local woman is being recognized for her makeup skills after being named a finalist in the North American Hair Awards (NAHA) for Makeup Artist of the Year.
Callie Cabral, an Erin resident and a stylist and makeup artist at Valentini Hair Design on Woolwich Street, is one of five finalists for the award, which will be announced at the 2021 Award Ceremony on Aug. 29 in Las Vegas.
“I was pretty amazed and wowed that I was able to come that far with that many talented artists,” said Cabral about the results.
Cabral has only been at the salon for two years when she was asked to participate in NAHA, a competition that showcases the most talented professionals within the salon industry.
Having turned 21 back in September, Cabral is one of the younger professionals to make it into finals. She said the age range of other finalists appear to be between 25 and 40.
“I didn’t understand how big it was until I was an actual finalist,” she said, “I knew it was big, but I didn’t realize until I saw the finalists in these categories.”
“It was pretty mind-blowing that I was able to get to that level.”
She recalls learning about the results from her boss, Julio Rodriguez, while she was cleaning out the cow pits at her family’s barn.
“He was like, ‘Did you look at your emails, did you look at anything?’” she remembers, “And I was like, “No, I was in the barn,’ and he said, ‘Okay, that’s where I figured you were.’
“When I found out, I was just shaking because I was like, oh my goodness!” she continues, “Then I told my whole family and started posting and stuff.”
The plan for these looks started back in August, and the work included three months of designing wigs worn by the models.
To create the looks, Cabral said the process took between an hour to an hour and 30 minutes per person. The creative director at Valentini, Derrick Rutherford, and Rodriguez also helped with putting the hair together for these looks.
Cabral and her team decided not to follow a theme for their designs, but she mentions wanting to incorporate yellow in the models hair and makeup, as well as using the makeup to emphasize their eyes.
“I had one model come in and I did all three looks on her,” she explains, “And then on the day of, I kind of tweaked it a bit more.”
“As we went along, it just started to come together.”
Once the makeup was done at Valentini’s, the models and stylists drove to Waterloo, where the photos were taken by photographer Ema Suvajac.
“She’s a really good photographer, we’ve used her for a couple of photo shoots,” Cabral mentions.
From makeup to the photo shoot, each person followed COVID protocols by wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Much like they do when working at the salon, said Cabral.
“It wasn’t very different from a regular shoot, but we took all those precautions of washing our hands, sanitizing our stuff,” she explains.
“One of them (models) works for us, she does all of our social media, the other two, they consistently come into the salon with us.”
Originally wanting to become a welder, Cabral took cosmetology in high school when she needed another elective. Prior to cosmetology, Cabral had been grooming cattle since the age of 10-years-old. While grooming cattle takes longer than human hair, she said the activity pushed her to do her own hairstyles.
Her teacher, Melanie Langlois, then encouraged her to participate in a co-op program and helped her secure an interview with Valentini. When her co-op program finished, Valentini offered Cabral a full time position within their salon, which she recalls happily accepting.
“I’m very grateful for her,” Cabral said about Langlois, “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this industry, or I wouldn’t have gotten as far.”
She also appreciates Rodriguez asking her to participate in the contest, and for both Rodriguez and Rutherford encouraging her throughout the process.
"It's inspired me even more to keep doing more of them, because they were really fun."
To learn more about the NAHA and to see some other finalist’s work, click here.